Recent years have seen drastic increases in the use of portable computing devices, such as smart phones, electronic readers (e-readers) and tablet computers. Today's consumers are utilizing such devices for a wide variety of different purposes, such as to view media content, access and search the Internet, purchase products and services, capture and/or send digital images, compose electronic mail (email) messages, make telephone calls and the like. Such a portable computing device can be used in different locations and by different users. Some of these users may be well-known and authorized users, such as family members, while other users may be strangers or acquaintances and yet other users may be malicious users, such as a thief that has stolen the device. In this context, it is becoming more and more important to control access to the device and to protect the privacy and sensitive information of the owner of the device.